This invention relates to a boat ramp, and more particularly to a boat ramp of the type for docking or mooring a boat temporarily out of the water and permitting quick launching of the boat back into the water with great ease.
The invention is useful for boats having a length not in excess of about 25 feet and is most useful for boats of shorter length such as about 8, 12, 16, or even 20 feet.
The art of boat ramp design has received an enormous amount of attention over the years, with the result that a multitude of options for boat ramp design have been created. In short, this field of technology is extremely highly developed.
Unfortunately, however, despite its highly developed nature, it appears that little or no serious attention has heretofore been given to a ramp design using a keel roller of long axial length in combination with hull support rollers to preclude or at least substantially minimize the risk of unsightly scratches or other damage to a boat during ramp use. There appears to have been great emphasis heretofore on nice little keel rollers, and especially a plurality of aligned little keel support rollers, with concomitant reduction of the number of lateral hull support rollers to one or two and the consequent relatively higher risk for bow and keel damage as well as for poor balance of a boat on such a ramp.
Everyone heretofore seems to have liked a winch for pulling a boat out of the water onto a ramp, but when it comes to ladder-style ramps, little attention seems to have been given to simplified but effective bracing for the winch assembly.
Some ramps heretofore proposed have had articulated sections; others have had the entire ramp structure mounted for pivot operation. Such expedients create balancing issues and generally require a fair amount of energy for successful operation. Any excessive expenditure of energy is looked upon by most boat enthusiasts as less than ideal.
Much to be desired has been a boat ramp of exceedingly simple design, a design calculated to minimize the risk of scratching and other damage to a boat, a design with good hull support to maintain boat stability during ramp storage, and a design with operational features contributing to ease of boat storage as well as fast and easy launching capability. This invention is directed toward those goals. Further, in its most preferred form, the invention additionally provides a ramp design permitting the unassembled components to be conveniently and compactly packaged for shipment as parcel packages to almost any location desired without exorbitant shipping expense. This becomes especially noteworthy when it is recognized that boat ramps normally have only enjoyed relatively local area markets as distinguished from national market penetration. It also is especially noteworthy when combined with the fact that the components of the preferred new boat ramp of this invention can be easily and conveniently assembled using readily available and widely used tools.
The new boat ramp of the invention has a ladder-style metal frame. Such a frame has elongated lateral side rails held in spaced apart parallel condition by cross support beams. Ideally, the rails and the cross support beams are made using extruded aluminum lengths having a C shape in cross-section. The spaced apart condition for the rails should be greater than about one and one-half feet, and the rails should have a length greater than 10 feet and terminate at one end as a water end and terminate at the other end as a shore end.
The ramp has at least six hull roller assemblies so as to provide at least three on each rail. Preferably a greater number of hull roller assemblies are employed, such as five or six on each rail, up to as many as eight or 10 or even 12 or more on each rail. The hull roller assemblies are laterally paired on the side rails (e.g., the hull roller assembly on one side rail is paired to the hull roller assembly across from it on the other side rail). Also, the paired hull roller assemblies are longitudinally spaced from each other along the rails. It is important to have plural hull roller assemblies distributed over at least the water end half of the length of each of the rails.
Hull roller assemblies of the invention have a hull roller axle on which is mounted at each end a hull roller. Thus, each assembly has two hull rollers as part in its makeup. The hull roller assemblies on the rails are so arranged and mounted that their axles are in pivotable, elevated, transverse orientation above the rails. This permits the hull rollers to pivot and rotate according to the contour of the hull of a boat being pulled into resting condition on them. At least one hull roller assembly is at the water end terminus of each rail, and this particular hull roller assembly generally should employ a slightly shorter axle length (for hull rollers) than the hull roller assemblies otherwise distributed in spaced relationship on a rail. The shorter axle contributes to total strength for the assembly at the water end where the weight on it (contributed in part by the boat motor) is likely to be the greatest. It also contributes to closer spacing between hull rollers on the axle and protects against penetration of the bow of a boat between the hull rollers and thus saves it from damage. The hull rollers nearest each other on the paired assemblies across from each other are called inside hull rollers, whereas those hull rollers that are furthest from each other on the paired assemblies are called outside hull rollers.
At the water end is mounted a keel roller assembly equipped with a central keel roller. The keel roller preferably is greater in axial length than one-fourth of the distance between the rails. The axial length of the keel roller should be at least about 6 inches and ideally is at least about 10 inches. It can be greater in length. The inside hull rollers of the paired hull roller assemblies at the water end have a proximity relationship to the keel roller so as to cooperate with the keel roller to substantially preclude all contact by the bow of a boat against structural elements or components of the ramp at the water end other than the hull rollers and the keel roller.
The low profile of the entire rampxe2x80x94and particularly the low profile for the water end keel roller and other elementsxe2x80x94permits convenient boat loading on the ramp even when only a minimal ramp length extends into the water.
A winch assembly is mounted on the ramp at the shore end of the ladder-style frame. The mounting employed is preferably such as to orient the winch mount beam at an angle. It is mounted at a foundation location spaced inward from the shore end and extends toward the shore end at a low upward angle of no more than about 45 degrees from the rails. The length of the winch mount beam and the bracing relationships for it are preferably such as to place the winch end of the beam approximately perpendicularly upward at the shore end, and at a modest but useful elevation above the shore endxe2x80x94a position that allows for maximum utilization of the ladder system to receive boats.
Components of the new boat ramp are ideally formed for easy assembly. Simple well-known small hardware (e.g., bolts, nuts, cotter pins, washers) is used to fasten and hold components in assembled condition. The components and the simple hardware are capable of being packaged in a manner satisfying limitations imposed by well-known and popular parcel shipment services such as United Parcel Service and others. Parcel shipment services generally limit the size of packages acceptable to them (as by weight, length, and girth) so that the packages can be handled by a single individual or at least stand a good chance of being handleable by a single individual. Among other things, packages greater than 9 feet in length are generally not acceptable, yet the rails of the ladder-style frame of the new ramp easily exceed a length of 9 feet or 108 inches. To accommodate shipment limitations, rails of the new ramp are conveniently made in sections for shipment, and joined together by connector brackets to achieve lengths as desired for ramp use. An ideal illustration is that of using rail sections having a length of about 103 inches and uniting two or more of such rail sections with connector brackets to achieve the desired length for a ramp. From a practical standpoint, two such sections can form a ramp length of 206 inches. Such a length can accommodate a majority of the smaller inlandlake boats, and three such sections forming a ramp length of 309 inches is believed to satisfy most of the remaining market for practical inlandlake boat ramps.
Many other benefits and advantageous features and characteristics of the invention will become evident as this description proceeds.